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The reason that Hobbes gives for supporting the State, namely that it is the only alternative to anarchy, is in the main a valid one. A State may, however, be so bad that temporary anarchy seems preferable to its continuance, as in France in 1789 and in Russia in 1917. Moreover the tendency of every government towards tyranny cannot be kept in chec
... See moreBertrand Russell • History of Western Philosophy
John Barrow’s A New and Impartial History of England,
Louis N Sarkozy • Napoleon's Library: The Emperor, His Books and Their Influence on the Napoleonic Era
If this kind of government appears to me to be useful and rational, I am nevertheless constrained to admit that it is expensive.
Alexis de Tocqueville • Democracy in America, Volume I and II (Optimized for Kindle)
John O'Donohue • John O’Donohue — The Inner Landscape of Beauty
However, even if Rousseau disagreed with Hume and Mandeville, he did not seek to deny the basic premise behind their analyses: it truly appeared to be a choice between decadent consumption and wealth on the one hand, and virtuous restraint and poverty on the other. It was simply that Rousseau – unusually – preferred virtue to wealth.
Alain De Botton • The School of Life: An Emotional Education
Influence is often essential to great political movements.
Henry Oliver • Second Act
Against the more insane forms of subjectivism in modern times there have been various reactions. First, a half-way compromise philosophy, the doctrine of liberalism, which attempted to assign the respective spheres of government and the individual. This begins, in its modern form, with Locke, who is as much opposed to “enthusiasm”—the individualism
... See moreBertrand Russell • History of Western Philosophy
CHAPTER XXI Aristotle’s Politics